The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-06-11
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,
AN AFRICAN LETTER.


An English anthropologist, Mr.. Bloxam, has
described eight specimens of symbolic letters
which have actually been used by the tribe of Jebu
in West Africa. message from native prince
of Jebu to his brother residing abroad consists of
six cowries all turned in the same direction, the
quill of q feather being passed through them
from front to back, and the shaft turned towards
the end of the quill and fixed to the side of the
cowries. The significance Of this symbolic group
depends upon the facts, that in the Jebu language
six is "E-fa, from the verb "fa," to draw, and
that Africans are in the habit of cleansing their
ears with feather, and look upon it as the only
effectual instrument for the purpose. The mean
ing is: "By these six cowries do draw you to
myself. and you should also draw closely to me;
as by the feather only can reach to your ears,
so am expecting you to come to me, and hoping
to see you immediately"
THE LAMP-oIL BEVERAGE MYTH.
Correcting common errors concerning the
Eskimos, Mr.. John Murdoch points out that there
is no evidence that the women have plurality of
husbands; that the people do not live in under
ground dens, keeping up their internal heat by
enormous meals of raw blubber washed down with
draughts of lamp-oil; that they do not torpidly
doze through their long nights; and that they are
not at all dwarfsh in stature. The winter houses
of snow are usually built upon the surface, the
food is chiefly cooked oil is used much the same
as among civilized people, and the activity of the
villages is not lessened by winter, whose darkness
has been exaggerated.
EARTHQUAKE LITERATURE.
An idea of the attention which earthquakes
have received, according to Prof. Milne, may be
gathered from the fact that Prof. Alexis Perry,
of Dion, who has published some sixty memoirs
on the subject, gave, in 1856, catalogue of 1887
works devoted to seismology. In 1858 Mr.. Robert
Mallet published in the Reports of the British
Association list of several hundred works re-
lating to earthquakes. As much attention has
been given earthquakes in the East in the West,
and China has abundant writings concerning
them while even the isolated empire of Japan
can boast of at least sixty-fve works on earth
quakes. Besides these numerous treatises there
are in all lands innumerable shorter references to
such disturbances. To attempt to give COM
plete catalogue of even the books which have
been written would be to enter on work of COM
pilation which would occupy many years, and
could never be satisfactorily finished.
ANILINE FOR PHTHIsIs.
Promising "cures" for consumption are neither
new nor few, but still behold our friends falling
victims to the terrible destroyer. A Russian
pathologist, Prof. Kremianski, has noticed that
aniline has singularly fatal effect on the comma
bacillus, or supposed germ of consumption, and,
as the substance is only slightly poisonous to the
human body, he proposes killing the disease germs
in the lungs and the circulation by inhaations
of aniIine He has tried this plan with striking
success in few cases, although further evidence
will be required to show conclusively that the
cures have resulted from the aniline treatment.
PRUSSIAN GAME.
For the year ending with March, 1886, the
value of the game killed in the woods and forests
of Prussia is estimated at 100000. The keep
ers are said to have greatly added to the import
ance of the national game-bag by their vigilance
in protecting the valuable game from the vermin
which destroy it. They killed during the period
named more than quarter of a million head OF
vermin, among which are reckoned foxes, stoats,
weasels martens, polecats, badgers, offers, wild
cats, and birds of prey. Only four wolves were
taken, the curious fact having been observed
that the German wolves followed the German
army into France during the winter of 1870
and have remained there.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Iodine, hitherto known in nature only in COM
bination with other elements, is now found in q
free state in the water of Woodhall spa, near
Lincoln is England. The water is colored q de-
cided brown by the iodine.
A committee on lighting the Paris Exhibition
of 1889 has reported favorably plan for the
use of every known means of illumination. The
total amount of light to be furnished is estimated
at 2,S5O,OOO standard candles, said to be"upwards
of five times the intensity produced by the whole
of the gas lamps of Paris"
While there has been little doubt that meteoric
stones have been falling upon the earth from the
earliest ages, there has been lacking direct evil
dence of this in the form of specimens from the
stratifed rocks. This evidence has now been
supplied, fossil meteorite-a mass of iron COM
bined with nickel and carbon-having been taken
from block of coal in Lower Austria.
A French traveller recently discovered some bee
hives in gigantic eucalyptus tree in Australia.
The honey was strongly scented with the perfume
of the flowers of the tree and Prof. Thomas
Karaman, who has examined it, believes it to have
medicinal properties.
The Government of India now maintains 131
weather observatories. From these a special
study of the influence of forests on climate has
been made, and the results confirm the theory
that rainfall is most abundant over wooded dis
tricts.
A map showing the distribution of fog on the
various parts of the earth has just been published
by Admiral T. de Bort. The observations upon
which it is based were made at 1000 land and
$4,000 marine stations